"The Doozers" preschool series under development

That doesn't sound manipulative or heavy-handed to me. Criticizing the Doozer program for offering environmental solutions is like criticizing Sesame Street for educating children. I guess some people here the word "environment" and automatically think evil. I have never quite understood that.

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Well I think in the past, enviornmental messages on TV were very universal. They were written in a way where no one could really argue with them. Nowadays a lot of messages, on either side, are created in a very...em...partisan way? They can't help but stick in some jibe at the other side. Or their own side's agenda on other issues leaves a bad taste. We're not seeing human beings delivering a message, we're seeing political parties.

Not saying this Doozer show is like that, just pondering one reason why the issue has become so confusing.

Now regardless of your feelings on global warming, carbon footprints, holes in the ozone, air pollution, endangered species, depleting natural resources, or any of these other "liberal" issues; I think we should be able to agree that it is important to teach about stewardship of the earth and our resources. Environmentalism is still important, even if you feel that we aren’t causing the "end of the world" with any of our behavior.

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I say, when you make something important like this a partisan/contradictarian issue, the only people who win are paid loud mouths like Rush Limburger and all of them. You basically wind up paying for books, listening to radio that's been sponsored (in this case, by people who want to sweep environmental issues under the rug, say oil companies), and feeding a beast that tells you what to think instead of coming up with your own opinion.

Also remember that a lot can (and probably will) change before the actual release. Anyone remember the early designs of Sid from "Sid the Science Kid" (who was also originally named Josh)? Thinks will likely change over the next year and a half as they develop the show.

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And honestly, that version of Sid looks uGlY... almost lifeless. I still don't think this Doozer is that bad looking, and it just looks like a conceptual design. But sometimes things need to be skewed to look like they're animated. A Doozer CGI that's slavishly designed to look like the same puppets might come off a bit more rigid and lifeless than they should be. Same problem when Doozers were animated in the Fraggle cartoon series.

Of course, knowing Henson the difference between the Fraggle Cartoon and this project is, while FRA (Fraggle Rock Animated) was totally hand dranw and animated, they may just make use of the WALDO, similar to what's going on with Sid... so basically, we still get puppetry... just with a CGI wire frame instead of foam and felt.

I say, when you make something important like this a partisan/contradictarian issue, the only people who win are paid loud mouths like Rush Limburger and all of them. You basically wind up paying for books, listening to radio that's been sponsored (in this case, by people who want to sweep environmental issues under the rug, say oil companies), and feeding a beast that tells you what to think instead of coming up with your own opinion.

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I agree with that. In the end - environmental causes = human survival. The planet will get along without us or any organic life, but why should it when we can ingrain new simple behaviors in or daily lives that can massively help? I always find those folk that make the environment a partisan issue are the same sort of folk that grossly oversimplify every issue until it sounds absurd. Helpful information doesn't have to be preachy and this Doozer program appears to be the right way to go.

Helpful information doesn't have to be preachy and this Doozer program appears to be the right way to go.

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Yeah... this is the Doozers. Not Captain Planet... (admit it, Toxic Crusaders was much more fun intentionally).

The target age group things bothers me a little. Hope they don't overly stress that.

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Again, Sid the Science kid seems to talk to that audience as well, and it manages to keep a certain structure and even reuse songs on an episodic basis.... but it doesn't come off saccharine, and Sid interacts to the home audience much like a talk show host... Ellen or David Letterman for example. It's like we're actually watching a child's pretend talk show. I'd assume the same style of writing and humor would be present. I just hope they have a few nods to the Fraggles and Gorgs for the older fans with kids watching it.

LOL, that made me laugh. I watched Captain Planet all the time but yeah, it could be embarrassingly preachy, hehe.

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Nigh on conspiracy theory in some episodes. I liked it as a kid, up until I realized that Toxic Crusaders got NO respect... I like to think of it, as Troma head honcho and creator of the original Toxic Avenger movie referred to it, a sweet little kid's show based off a movie where someone's head gets graphically crushed by the front wheel of a car.

Off that matter, I still hope this doesn't just sit there on cable. Sure, cable is in more homes now than when FR started up... but I still think it would benefit from being on PBS.

This looks interesting. I think I'd want to see a show first though before making a final descision on it. What's cool is I asked a bunch of people one time who their favorite fraggle was and I got quite a significant number of people saying they really liked the doozers. So it's not as if there isn't some kind of audience out there for it. And if it works I'd say go for it.

Something tells me this project was semi-connected with the movie. So basically, it's going nowhere. Shame... this could have potentially brought the Fraggles into the eye enough to woo another studio. or at least give us some nice preschool Doozer toys.

I think it would be cool to see it come out if it ever did. It's funny, whenever I ask people who their favorite fraggle is, I want to say at least half say they liked the doozers best. That being said, it seems as if it could be viable if anyone ever picked it up.